The Night Watchman

By Louise Erdrich,

Book cover of The Night Watchman

Book description

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION 2021

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill…

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Why read it?

4 authors picked The Night Watchman as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Written by one of the US’s great novelists, this book took me straight into the homes and lives of a Native family fighting for both.

It’s gentle, funny, kind, and generous, and it’s based on the true story of how one tribe went all the way to Congress to foil a land grab that would have impoverished its members and destroyed their heritage.

It’s based on Erdrich’s grandfather, a night watchman who rose to the occasion. You’d think it would be depressing, but instead, I felt both cheered up and better educated by this must-read!

In a time when reconciliation…

This stunning, sprawling novel is anchored by the experiences of Thomas Wazhashk, the night watchman at a jewel-bearing factory in rural North Dakota.

It explores the strangeness of working the night shift and living with a semi-nocturnal schedule. The job and his tireless fight against a bill that will further dispossess Native Americans drive Thomas to a state of near-exhaustion.

Some of the most memorable moments in this compassionate and narratively ambitious book were the descriptions of Thomas’s lonely and occasionally revelatory experiences on the night shift, including his encounters with a white owl he finds pecking at the factory…

Louise Erdrich is one the premier writers of our time and in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel she doesn’t disappoint. This is a deeply revealing and completely engrossing novel about everyday people who fought against the U.S. government’s 1953 Indian Termination Policy. Using a fictional representation of her own grandfather, Erdrich exposes yet another tragic moment in the history of U.S. relations with Native Americans. What’s brilliant is that she does so without clichés or gimmicks. Her characters are not heroic figures or caricatures that exist to prove a point or embellish an important historical moment. They are deeply human and…

A Diary in the Age of Water

By Nina Munteanu,

Book cover of A Diary in the Age of Water

Nina Munteanu Author Of Darwin's Paradox

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Ecologist Mother Teacher Explorer

Nina's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Toronto in the grips of severe water scarcity.

Single mother and limnologist Lynna witnesses disturbing events as she works for the powerful international utility CanadaCorp. Fearing for the welfare of her rebellious teenage daughter, Lynna sets in motion a series of events that tumble out of her control with calamitous consequence.…

A Diary in the Age of Water

By Nina Munteanu,

What is this book about?

Centuries from now, in a post-climate change dying boreal forest of what used to be northern Canada, Kyo, a young acolyte called to service in the Exodus, discovers a diary that may provide her with the answers to her yearning for Earth’s past—to the Age of Water, when the “Water Twins” destroyed humanity in hatred—events that have plagued her nightly in dreams. Looking for answers to this holocaust—and disturbed by her macabre longing for connection to the Water Twins—Kyo is led to the diary of a limnologist from the time just prior to the destruction. This gritty memoir describes a…


The Night Watchman is another feat of world-building and story, based on the life and community of the author’s extraordinary Chippewa-Cree grandfather, (called Thomas Wazhushk in the book), who led the fight against genocidal government legislation that would have destroyed his tribe. The motley cast of characters–not least Thomas’ young niece Patrice–will both steal and break your heart, with each one living and breathing their powerful heritage in a unique, yet unified way.

From Jenny's list on historical fiction by diverse women.

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